Monster Hunter: World's Bonus Gear Is Cool But Could Use Some Tweaks

If you ever wanted to watch Street Fighter's Ryu shoryuken a dinosaur or run around with a wibbly, wobbly snake hat, Monster Hunter: World's bonus quests can make your dreams come true. But there's a catch. Random level requirements and lacklustre stats make the gear tricky to get and tougher to use.

Monster Hunter: World helps keep the experience fresh by adding limited time bonus quests that grant unique outfits and items. Quests pop up a few times a month and last a week or two. Larger promotional events last the longest.

These special quests grant items that are crossovers with games like Street Fighter V and Horizon: Zero Dawn, but the requirements vary. To play as Ryu, players currently need to have a Street Fighter V save file and reach a measly Hunter Rank 3. Players looking to unlock a Horizon: Zero Dawn robot skin for their palico cat companion had to be at Hunter Rank 6 while anyone eager to cosplay as Aloy can only run the new quest to unlock her at Hunter Rank 11. That's a much stiffer challenge and one new players can't easily access.

Monster Hunter is a serious time commitment. Individual hunts can take 20 to 30 minutes, and you need a lot of hunts to level up. It's not always possible for players to speed through ranks, particularly if they want to spend time crafting specific armour sets along the way. Monster Hunter's notoriously fickle random drops can leave players hunting dozens of the same monster for an afternoon. Some people can climb ranks fast but others will take much longer.

It's not the worst grind, but players eager to collect bonus content might miss out as they work up the ranks.

At least players get more than one crack at the quests. "These post-launch quests, including the recent Horizon Zero Dawn content, are on a rotating schedule and will be reintroduced at a later date, so even new hunters will have a chance to get the content as they get more experience," a representative of Capcom told Kotaku via email.

Monster Hunter: World's unlockables aren't great for high level hunters, because the stats are relatively weak, especially for players who have already grinded and earned excellent armour. The Ryu gear offers lightning resistance but its other stats can't hold a candle to other armour, even when upgraded. The Aloy gear provides good starting gear for higher rank hunts but loses value as time goes on.

Players on forums like Reddit have noticed a different way Capcom could design its armour that might work better. They note that the samurai armour set, which is downloadable content released with Monster Hunter: World's deluxe edition, works as a cosmetic that is worn over other equipment.

It doesn't force players to choose between flashy bonus armour with bad stats and better, regular game gear. It lets players wear their best armour but keep the visuals of the bonus gear. As I look for solutions that can give move value to optional quests, this seem ideal. It gives players a chance to enjoy their rewards without seeing them eventually turn useless.

Veteran hunters such as YouTuber Gaijinhunter have different thoughts. Gaijinhunter is a top Monster Hunter content creator whose analysis of events and in-depth weapon tutorials has given him over 230,000 subscribers. He's mostly pleased with the current direction of event quests.

"I am really happy they didn't go transmog with this like the samurai set," he said."In my opinion, it would cheapen it," Gaijinhunter said via Discord message. "The point is to become [Aloy], and she is a fleshed out character. So, throwing her outfit on over a hammer set would feel off. It would also mean way more people wearing her gear, which is not good -- as they want players wearing a wide range of gear, as that helps promote hunting many different monsters and individuality."

For Gaijinhunter, the limited usability of special armour helps ensure that players will show off armour sets crafted from their fallen enemies and ensure diverse character designs within the higher ranks. Showing off various armour sets would drive players to craft them as well, encouraging hunters to go on a variety of hunts.

"The only thing I wish they did differently was to offer the [low rank] gear during the same period as the [high rank] stuff, as some people like to collect stuff," Gaijinhunter said. In the case of Horizon: Zero Dawn's crossover, this would mean offering the Watcher palico cat armour again. "I think a lot missed out, thus why it's my only 'complaint.'"

Regardless of whether or not hunters believe bonus rewards should remain equippable armour or cosmetic skins, it seems agreed upon that the extra content is pretty damn cool. Capcom's pledge to bring back these rewards is a good way to ensure all players can get the gear they want. What holds the bonuses back, ever so slightly, is the short availability and the diminishing usefulness of the rewards.

There are plenty of ways to improve Monster Hunter: World's exciting rewards. Bringing back old rewards alongside similar promotions, improving their statistics, making them purely cosmetic or even just keeping quest requirements consistent could go a lot way to making a good game even better.

Comments

I think the current system promotes people to wear the same things as others, and you end up with people looking the same. Once the meta is decided on what armours are best for certain weapons you'll get everyone wearing similar things, i remember in 4U there were some common mixed sets that so many people used that it got boring.

Give us transmog and then we can see a variety of people looking different without worrying about skills, or hey, i would love to play as Ryu because i love street fighter but the armour is so bad that i am actively bringing others down if i use it.

It would also make me not hate my character because the mixed set i have on looks like trash, but works the best for me.

They should implement it like they did in MH XX, make transmog items a reward drop for high level quests and make people earn it.

I just want them to change the stat requirements for Aloy's War Bow as needing to get a bloody Zorah Magdaros Gem for it is going to drive me insane.

Otherwise, though, I found grinding Anjanath for the rest of her armour pretty satisfying, even if it is just the same as the normal Anjanath armour, stat-wise. It looks great but lacks the hair physics of Horizon.

"These post-launch quests, including the recent Horizon Zero Dawn content, are on a rotating schedule and will be reintroduced at a later date, so even new hunters will have a chance to get the content as they get more experience,"

THANK YOU FOR THIS. I managed to nab the palico skin, but was burned out from the mad dash to grab it that when the Aloy Skin came around, I had moved on and I couldn't bring myself to play, it just wasn't fun anymore. I enjoyed the game, but rushing past everything to gain a level because the event was only for a few days was ridiculous, not to mention impossible for some people since I still see it sold out in stores.

Glad to see I can re-claim Aloys skin later, after playing and leveling up ( Hunter Rank wise) at my own pace.

It goes for 3 weeks and at the least if you solo one for the feel of it everyone was running sos flares for it so you couldve dropped in and smashed it in less than 10 minutes, through in a couple of vouchers and couldve done it in under an hour

The Aloy skin mission or just leveling up Hunter Rank, as I was not yet the right Hunter Rank to even start it. I did SoS's for the Palico Skin to level up Hunter Rank but was disappointed, it was all a rush, I felt like I was just grinding to rank up to get to the right Hunter Rank instead of playing the game normally, being a average Hunter, it takes me abit to Rank up.

Doing the missions for the skins is fine, its that barrier of rushing to Hunter Rank up that drained me since by the time I had the game to grab the Palico Skin, I had 3 days to raise my Hunter Rank and with my course, that was little time. There is some time for Aloy I admit, but I was drained and lost the appeal of playing. Would rather play without it then rush to grab it.

I think it'd be cool to be able to wear the Ryu or Aloy skin as a cosmetic appearance over whatever gear you're actually wearing. As much as I love both characters, I never use the "equipment" of either of them, because despite their decent skills/resistances, the armor value sucks completely later on in-game.